Red Dragon
Directed by: Bret Ratner
Written by: Thomas Harris (novel), Ted Tally (screenplay)
Starring: Anthony Hopkins, Edward Norton, Ralph Fiennes, Harvey Keitel, Emily Watson, Philip Seymour Hoffman

Movie remakes are almost always bad news. If it’s not a case of Americanizing a foreign film, then it’s a usually a case of modernizing a classic, all in the name of making a quick buck. And although Red Dragon is not exactly a remake of Michael Mann’s 1984 film Manhunter, they are both based on the same Thomas Harris novel, and there just doesn’t seem to be a valid justification for telling the story a second time.

The argument they would give you, I guess, is that Anthony Hopkins’ portrayal of Hannibal Lecter is the most widely recognized and well liked (as opposed to Brian Cox, who plays Lecter in Manhunter), so they wanted to complete the trilogy with Hopkins lending his own take on the story. But that is a pretty silly argument, because Red Dragon isn’t really about Hannibal Lecter as much as you might think.

Red Dragon is a prequel to the events that took place in Silence of the Lambs. The opening moments of the film depict Hannibal Lecter’s capture at the hands of Detective Will Graham (Ed Norton), and they both very nearly kill each other in the struggle. Years later, Graham is off the police force, but he is called back into action because he has a knack for getting into a serial killer’s head that no one else has. They are after a serial killer nicknamed “The Tooth Fairy”, and of course, Graham finds himself requiring the assistance of Dr. Lecter to solve the case. But as the story progresses, it becomes a showdown between the Tooth Fairy and Will Graham more than anything else.

Although they did assemble a fine array of acting talent for Red Dragon, it was pretty obvious that it was a shameless attempt to cash in on the box office success of Silence Of The Lambs and Hannibal. So I guess it shouldn’t be a surprise that in the end what we got was just a mediocre and essentially forgettable movie.

Initially, one of the most discouraging things about Red Dragon is that it was directed by Brett Ratner, who is best known for doing the Rush Hour movies and Family Man. None of his past work would indicate he had the level of sophistication or finesse needed to direct a “psychological thriller” such as this. Still, I suppose he does an adequate job with Red Dragon; that is to say, he managed to avoid making a mockery of it. But there’s nothing spectacular about the images he put together on screen either. The main problem with Ratner’s direction in this movie seems to boil down to this: he doesn’t know how to create atmosphere. He doesn’t seem to realize that yellow lighting does not automatically make a scene spooky. Even Danny Elfman’s music score, which is up to par with some of his most sinister compositions, is underused.

This may also explain why there wasn’t much suspense or fear evoked during this movie. I blame that partially on the story as well though. How can we be frightened when the movie doesn’t even really have a dangerous villain? Hannibal is certainly not a threat during this movie, as he spends 95% of it behind bars. Also, this being Anthony Hopkins’ third time playing the role of Hannibal, there’s no longer any intensity there. You can tell he’s just in it for the paycheck, and his performance has become a caricature of itself.

The Tooth Fairy on the other hand, appears menacing when we first see him lifting weights and talking back to the voices in his head, but as soon as we see him in his daily life as a shy, lonely guy with a slightly disfigured face, and we learn that he was abused as a child, we just end up taking pity on him. Maybe it would have helped if we saw him actually killing people… as it is, the most disturbing thing he did on screen for the majority of the film was eat an oil painting. The idea of being possessed by the Red Dragon made for a few creepy moments, but this fell by the wayside once we were shown just how insane the Tooth Fairy really was. Humanizing the serial killer effectively eliminated the sense of danger and urgency that the story should have had.

Even though this was the first story that Thomas Harris wrote, knowing what we know now, it seems inferior to Silence Of The Lambs and Hannibal and it does not feel like a prequel. We have no choice but to judge it in comparison with the two movies that follow it, and this amplifies some of the movie’s shortcomings.

For one, we’ve already seen an FBI agent consult with Lecter before. Not only has it been done before, but with Clarice Starling it seemed more believable. Hannibal has a soft spot for Clarice Starling, so he is motivated to help her out and toy with her — there is a strange chemistry between the two. But it doesn’t seem likely that Hannibal would have the same motivation to help out the very officer who put him behind bars. Also, it makes the FBI seem inept when they repeatedly go to Hannibal for help. Don’t they have their own behavioural psychologists?

Unlike the two films that follow Red Dragon chronologically, this movie is not really about Hannibal Lecter. It seems like he’s just in it as a novelty, and there’s no real reason for him to be there other than to spout off his witty dialogue and cryptic clues for Detective Graham. We want more of Lecter, but at the same time we can’t help but feel there’s already too much of him in the movie. Unfortunately when the focus shifts away from Hannibal, things becomes somewhat uninteresting. That is not to say that Ralph Fiennes’ portrayal of the Tooth Fairy isn’t good, but somewhere along the way we lose sight of the fact that he is a serial killer, and his romance with a blind girl summons bad memories of Fiennes’ performance in The English Patient. It’s so sappy and awkward it made me squirm even more than seeing dead bodies with shards of mirrors wedged into their eyes.

In the end it seems that even top notch acting couldn’t save Red Dragon. In some ways, having big name actors in this type of movie was a drawback as it took away from the realism and made it less frightening. Philip Seymour Hoffman deserves mention for his role as a sleazy journalist, but the rest of the cast failed to make an impression. I didn’t feel for Ed Norton’s character much at all. I thought Norton’s character was able to get inside the killer’s heads? Why was this concept never expanded upon?

It’s far too often that people decide to remake movies without having a good reason. I can understand the interest in seeing two interpretations of the same story, but most of the time remakes just ruins the integrity of the original. Such would seem to be the case with Red Dragon. I’ve never seen Manhunter, but the general consensus is that it is a better movie (although the ending does stray from the plot of the novel). So why even bother?

Red Dragon was entertaining, but at the same time, kind of predictable, and not as shocking or spine-tingling as the Hannibal movies should be. It is the weakest of them all, and only waters down the legacy. I would suggest going to rent Manhunter rather than seeing this film. It’s on the top of my to-do list as well. — Sean